my lakota quit on me a couple of days ago and had no compression so i pulled the head and found that the exhaust valve was bent. it looks like it was just barely comming in contact with the piston. was it doing this because the timing was off? also when i get the new valve is there anything special i should do to get the timing right so this doesn't happen again?

 

Unless you have made a radical cam change, milled the head, or something of this nature, your lakota must have 'jumped time'. If this is the case, you'll need to inspect your cam chain tensioner and guides then replace the cam chain and valve.